Kane out to break his Red Devils duck
LONDON: Harry Kane has yet to score against Manchester United in the Premier League but that could end at the sixth attempt on Sunday.
Tottenham Hotspur’s England striker is not short of confidence ahead of the trip to Old Trafford, having scored twice against Swansea City in a 5-0 thrashing at White Hart Lane last weekend after agreeing a new six-year deal.
Victory for fifth-placed Tottenham would send them nine points clear of Jose Mourinho’s side, who are sixth, and leave United with a yawning gap between them and a place in the Champions League next season.
Tottenham beat United 3-0 at White Hart Lane last April, before Mourinho took over in May, but Kane did little to stand out – to the amusement of Reds’ fans on social media and his own frustration.
United, who won 1-0 at home in August 2015, are the only club other than Watford and now-relegated Cardiff City, among the 24 opponents Kane has played against in the top flight, that have yet to see the Tottenham striker on the scoresheet.
The 23-year-old, last season’s top scorer who has been linked regularly to United in transfer speculation, is back in dangerous form having gone five league games without a goal at the end of last season and the start of the current campaign.
He has scored seven in his last six Premier League outings and will be keen to get Spurs moving back into contention with Chelsea breaking away at the top.
The North Londoners, who played CSKA Moscow in the Champions league at Wembley on Wednesday, are visiting United at a good time with their hosts having drawn their last three games 1-1 after conceding late equalisers.
Mourinho, whose side were at Ukraine’s Zorya Luhansk in the Europa League last night, left Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian and Michael Carrick out of his squad to keep them fresh for Sunday.
“The players I had to leave out to protect (them),” the Portuguese said on Wednesday.
Chelsea, three points clear of closest rivals Arsenal and four ahead of Liverpool, are at home to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday in a match that could bring them a ninth win in a row.
Liverpool host West Ham United the same day at Anfield while Arsenal should have an easy afternoon at the Emirates tomorrow when Stoke City come to town.
Stoke have not won at Arsenal since 1981, long before the Premier League came into existence, and have yet to take a point at the Emirates.
Champions Leicester City, teetering on the brink of the relegation zone with just 13 points from 14 games, are at home to Manchester City, who have striker Sergio Aguero starting a four-match ban.
At the bottom end of the table, Swansea City host resurgent Sunderland tomorrow with visiting striker Jermain Defoe bagging a hat-trick in last season’s fixture.
Meanwhile, West Ham fans are used to seeing their dreams fade and die but even their most long-suffering supporter could not have envisaged that a season supposed to herald a bold new era would crumble so fast.
Defeat at Liverpool on Sunday would probably plunge the Hammers into the bottom three. In reality, they will be happy to escape a mauling, especially with title-chasing Liverpool smarting from last weekend’s 4-3 defeat at Bournemouth.
Manager Slaven Bilic spoke candidly of the problems at the heart of West Ham’s rapid fall from grace after last weekend’s 5-1 home thrashing by Arsenal at the London Stadium.
The Croat’s suggestion that his squad had lost the work ethic that took them to the fringe of the top-four in May was worrying as he also admitted his team were now in the thick of a relegation battle.
Co-owner David Sullivan offered his support this week, but Bilic’s position will look as precarious as the partly demolished stands at the club’s former Boleyn ground if he cannot reverse the slide soon.
Some of the problems have been beyond Bilic’s control.
A terrible spate of injuries robbed West Ham of the likes Diafra Sakho and Andy Carroll, although the latter has now recovered and is fit to face his former club.
And the move to the former Olympic Stadium, which was supposed to propel the club into the giants of European football, has left them scrambling round the bottom of the Premier League.
Crowd trouble has poisoned the atmosphere and the noise levels and energy created at Upton Park, where West Ham were such a handful last season, have dipped.
Whether Bilic can be blamed for talisman Dimitri Payet’s loss of form is open to debate, with some suggesting the Frenchman is eyeing a January move.
But the way West Ham went missing against Arsenal last weekend, when the visitors could have been four, not just one, ahead at the break, revealed a chronic confidence crisis just when pressure games against fellow strugglers Hull City, Burnley and Swansea City loom.
The Hammers have conceded 29 league goals this season and only won three times in 14 matches.
How different to last season when West Ham beat Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield, 2-0 at Upton Park and also knocked Juergen Klopp’s side out of the FA Cup after a replay.
By contrast, Klopp’s side have been a revelation, although the way they surrendered a 3-1 lead to lose at Bournemouth on Sunday exposed the defensive frailties that could undermine their title challenge.
That defeat ended a 15-match unbeaten run and left Liverpool four points behind leaders Chelsea in third place. – Reuters